The UW Recycling & Solid Waste “Trash-In” is an annual hands-on, educational trash-sorting event. A day’s worth of trash is collected from multiple campus buildings and sorted by volunteers into recycling, compost and garbage bins. Trash-In aims to increase public awareness about how much recyclable or compostable material is still being thrown away as garbage on campus.

The results help guide the development of future programs to help the UW reach its waste diversion goal of 70% by 2020.

Last year’s Trash-In volunteers sorted just over 1,200 pounds of garbage from eight buildings—a small sample of the amount of garbage collected on campus in a typical day. Of the 1,200 pounds of garbage, 51% was compostable, 21% was recyclable, and only 28% was actual garbage.

This year, the Trash-In tradition continues bigger than ever! If you are interested in volunteering (time commitment is flexible), email us at recycle@uw.edu. Look for more information in the New Year!